By Avner Vengosh
Coal is part of our life. It’s an easily accessible and inexpensive fuel that, for many of us, powers everything from the coffee-maker we turn on each morning to the lights we turn on each evening. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal was the primary source of energy for about 40 percent of electricity generated in the United States in 2011.
But coal is not, by its nature, clean. Mountaintop-removal coal mining contaminates and destroys streams and rivers in downstream watersheds. Burning coal emits carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, particulates and toxic metals into the atmosphere